Career Break Resources Around the Web

This week we’re talking about career breaks, which might have you wondering just what is a career break, exactly? “Career break” is a relatively new term, used to describe a period of time when one steps away from the corporate world for any one of a multitude of reasons.

According to our friends at Meet, Plan, Go!, a career break “can be from 1 month to 3 years. Anything shorter than a month really falls into the glorified vacation bucket. There are a few things that make a career break unique; namely that you should have a career that you are breaking away from. This puts the typical career break age range from 27 to 57 years old. Younger, and it might be considered a Gap Year and older it may be considered retirement. When people add the element of globe trotting to their break, then it’s career break travel. It may mean that you tick off a bucket list, travel around the world, or simply go live as an expat in another country. Basically, it’s about shaking up your normal routine in a big way with your passport in hand.”

Reasons for taking a career break are as varied as the trips themselves. Some people are burned out at their current jobs and want to recharge and refocus away from the grind. Others feel lost in their careers and use the break as a chance to reassess what it is they want out of live. Some just want the freedom to travel for an extended period of time. And others travel with a specific purpose – to learn, or volunteer, or complete a specific journey.

There are a lot of career break myths out there – the biggest that you have to be rich to travel. Yet most career breakers find that they end up spending much less on the road than they would at home. And despite the growing popularity of career breaks, many people still think that stepping out of the rat race – even for a year – will ruin their careers. Again this proves false time and again, and most career breakers say that taking a break from the corporate would was nothing but beneficial.

If you’re interested in a career break but don’t know where to start gathering information, check out some of these great resources, tools, and articles around the web:

If you think you’re ready to start planning, or just want to learn more about the life-changing possibilities of a career break, be sure to sign up for the National Meet, Plan, Go! event, which will be held in 17 cities around the country on October 18, 2011. This inspirational evening will feature hosts who have taken the leap and changed their lives with a career break and will offer practical tips and information you can use to get started planning a break of your own.